From the Neolithic period until about the 19th
century such objects were among the most highly prized in a wide
variety of cultures, often attributed special powers or religious
significance, but today coverage in non-specialist art history
tends to be relegated to a catch-all decorative arts or "minor arts"
category. The types of objects carved have included those with
ritual or religious purposes, engraved gems as signet
rings and other kinds of seal, handles, belt
hooks and similar items, vessels and purely decorative objects.

Contents

Scope of the
term

Dish of serpentine
with inlaid gold fish, 1st century BCE or CE, with 9th century
mounts

Hardstone carving falls under the general category of glyptic
art, which covers small carvings and sculpture in all categories of stone. The
definition in this context of "hardstone" is unscientific and not very
rigid, but excludes "soft" stones such as soapstone (steatite) and minerals such as alabaster, both widely used for carving, as
well as typical stones for building and monumental sculpture, such as marble and other types of limestone, and sandstone. These are
typically not capable of a fine finish in very small carvings, and
would wear in prolonged use. In other contexts, such as
architecture, "hard stone" and "soft stone" have different
meanings, referring to actual measured hardness using the Mohs scale of mineral
hardness and other measures. Some rocks used in architecture
and monumental sculpture, such as granite, are at least as hard as the gemstones,
and others such as malachite are relatively soft but counted as
hardstones because of their rarity and fine colour.

Essentially, any stone that is often used in jewellery is likely
to count as a hardstone. Hard organic minerals such as amber and jet are included, as well as the mineraloidobsidian. Hardstones normally
have to be drilled rather than worked with edged tools to achieve a
fine finish. Geologically
speaking, most of the gemstones traditionally carved in the West
are varieties of quartz,
including: chalcedony,
agate, amethyst, sard, onyx, carnelian, heliotrope, jasper and quartz in its uncoloured and
transparent form, known as rock crystal. The various materials
called jade have been dominant in East Asian and Mesoamerican carving. Stones typically used
for buildings and large sculpture are not often used for small
objects such as vessels, although this does occur. For example, in
the Uruk period of
Sumerian culture (4th millennium BCE) heavy
vases, cups and ewers of sandstone and limestone are found,[3] which
must have been very inconvenient to use, especially as, unlike The
Flintstones, the people of Uruk had well developed pottery.

History

Asia
and the Islamic world

The art is very ancient, going back to the Indus Valley Civilization and
beyond, and major traditions include cylinder seals and other small carvings
in the Ancient Near
East, which were also made in softer stones. Inlays of
semi-precious stones were often used for decoration or highlights
in sculptures of other materials, for example statues often had
eyes inlaid with white shell and blue lapis lazuli or another stone.[4]

Chinese jade
carving begins with the carving of ritual objects, including blades
for ji
and dagger-axes
clearly never intended for use, and the "Six Ritual Jades"
including the bi and cong, which according to much later
literature represented heaven and earth respectively.[5] These
are found from the NeolithicLiangzhu culture (3400-2250 BCE)
onwards, and blades from the 2nd millennium BCE Shang Dynasty
on.[6]
Traditional Chinese culture attaches strong powers to jade; the jade burial
suits in which aristocrats of the Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) were buried
were intended to preserve the body from decay.[7]

The Chinese and other cultures often attributed specific
properties for detecting and neutralizing poison to
gemstones, a belief still alive in the European Renaissance, as shown
by the works of Georgius Agricola, the "father of mineralogy".[8] The
English word "jade" derives via Spanish from the Aztec belief that the mineral cured ailments of
the kidneys and sides.[9] The Han
period also saw the beginning of the tradition of fine decorative
jade carving which has lasted until modern times, though the fine
carving of other hardstones did not develop until the 17th century,
and then appears to have been produced in different workshops and
styles from those for jade.[10] In
general whiteish nephrite
jade was the most highly regarded in China until about 1800, when
the deeper and brighter green of the best jadeite became more highly favoured. There are
related Asian traditions of Korean jade carving, in Southeast Asia,
and to a much lesser extent Japan.

Smallish Sassanian carvings are known, mostly for
seals or jewellery; the central medallion of the "Cup of Chosroes"
(gallery) is one of the largest. Egyptian carving of rock crystal
into vessels appears in the late 10th century, and virtually
disappears after about 1040. In 1062 the Cairo palace of the FatimidCaliph was looted by his mercenaries, and the
examples found in European treasuries, like the one illustrated,
may have been acquired as the booty was dispersed. The rock crystal
used in Egypt was apparently traded from East Africa.[11]

Until recently it was thought that jade carving was introduced
to the central Asian Islamic world in the Timurid period,
but it is becoming clearer that archers' thumbrings and knife
hilts and various other objects had been carved for centuries, even
millennia before, though in limited numbers.[12]
Islamic jades and other carvings reached a particular peak in the
Mughal Empire,
where apart from portable carvings inlaid panels of carved stones were included in
buildings such as the Taj
Mahal.[13] The
great wealth of the Mughal court allowed precious stones like
rubies and emeralds to be inset freely in objects. The
court workshops of the Ottoman Empire also produced lavish and
elaborate objects, in similar styles but without reaching the
artistic peaks of Mughal carving.[14]

Western
traditions

From the early civilizations of the near East descended the
carving of vessels and small statues in Ancient Greece, Ancient
Rome and subsequent Western art, and also SassanianPersia;
however it it is not very significant in Ancient Egyptian art, outside jewellery, as
alabaster was a more
common material. The jade signet ring of Tutankhamun has been called a "unique
specimen" of Egyptian jade. [15]
Hardstone carving more often refers to vessels and figures than
smaller engraved
gems for seal rings or made as objéts d'art, which were the main artistic
expression of hardstone carving in the Greek classical and
Hellenistic periods, and are regarded separately. From the
Hellenistic period elaborate vessels in semi-precious stone begin
to appear, mostly carved, some in cameo. The Cup of
the Ptolemies and Farnese Cup both appear to have been made
in Alexandria in Ptolemaic Egypt, as does a simpler fluted
sardonyx cup in Washington which, like the
Cup of the Ptolemies, was adapted to be a Christian chalice, and given elaborate
gold and jewelled mounts by Abbot Suger for his Abbey of
St Denis about 1140.[16]

From the Late Antique plainer shapes for vessels appear,
concentrating on showing the natural patterns of figured stones -
survivals of these are hard to date, and mostly have survived in
church treasuries with medieval mounts in goldsmith work. The best
collection of Byzantine liturgical vessels is in the Treasury of San Marco, Venice, some of them booty from
the Fourth
Crusade.[17]Byzantine artists
maintained a tradition throughout the Middle Ages, often working in
clear rock crystal. There are a few large pieces from Carolingian
art, and then a continuing tradition of rock crystal work,
often used undecorated in reliquaries and other pieces in the same
way as modern glass, for which they are often mistaken by modern
viewers. By the end of the Middle Ages a wider variety of stones
and objects are seen, used for both religious objects and secular
ones.

The Opificio delle pietre dure
("Hardstone workshop") founded by the Medici in Florence in 1588 soon became the leading
workshop in Europe, and developed the pietra dura style of multi-coloured inlays, which use coloured marbles
as well as gemstones. They also produced vessels and small
sculptures from a single piece of stone, often mounted with gold,
which was also a speciality of Milanese workshops.[18] Other
rulers followed their example, including Peter the Great,
whose Peterhof
Lapidary Works, founded in 1721, began the passion among
Russian royalty and aristocrats for hardstones. Engraved gem
production had already revived, centred on Venice but with artists in many countries, and
gems of very high quality continued to be produced until the
mid-19th century. The Mannerist court taste of the 16th century
delighted in extravagant vessels for serving fruit or sweetmeats,
or display as table centrepieces or on sideboards, with hardstones
augmented with mounts and bases in precious metal, enamel and jewels.
One collection that has remained mostly together is the "Dauphin's
Treasure" of Louis, Dauphin of
France (1661–1711), which passed to his son Philip V of
Spain; over 120 objects are now displayed together in the Museo del
Prado, many of which were already over a century old in the
Dauphin's lifetime.[19]

In contrast to the vast malachite vases that rather typify Russian
carving (picture below),[20] the
last notable modern producer was Fabergé in
pre-Revolutionary Russia. Before he produced the famous Imperial Easter Eggs he made his reputation
with small hardstone figures of animals and people, typically only
25-75mm long or wide, and small vases with a few flowers - the vase
and "water" in rock crystal and the flowers in various hardstones
and enamel.[21]

Pre-Columbian and other
traditions

Beyond the Old World, hardstone carving was important in various
Pre-Columbian cultures, including jade in Mesoamerica and obsidian in Mesoamerica.
Because its colour had associations with water and vegetation, jade
was also a symbol of life to many cultures; the Maya placed jade beads in the mouths of the dead.
Lacking iron, jade was the hardest
material the Pre-Columbians were able to work with, apart from
emery.

A particular type of object running through the long history of
Mesoamerican cultures from the Olmec to the Maya and Aztec
is the face "mask" in semi-precious stone (they do not seem to have
been for actually wearing), either carved from a single piece or of
pieces inlayed on a backing of another material. Curators refer to
"Olmec-style" face masks as despite being Olmec in style, to date
no example has been recovered in a controlled archaeological Olmec
context. However they have been recovered from sites of other
cultures, including one deliberately deposited in the ceremonial
precinct of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), which would presumably have
been about 2,000 years old when the Aztecs buried it, suggesting these were valued
and collected as Roman antiquities were in Europe.[22] The
Aztecs' own masks are more typically of turquoise inlay, the Mayans' of jade inlay
(see gallery).

Another supposed type of Pre-Columbian hardstone carving is the
rock crystal
skull; however experts are now satisfied that all known large
(life-size) examples are 19th century forgeries, though some
miniature ones may be genuinely Pre-Columbian.

Techniques

Most hardstones, certainly all quartz types and jade, have a crystalline structure that does not allow
detailed carving by edged tools without great wastage and a poor
finish. Working them has always been very time-consuming, which
together with the cost of rare materials often traded from very far
away, has accounted for the great expense of these objects. After
sawing and perhaps chiselling to reach the approximate shape,
stones were mostly cut by using abrasive powder from harder stones
in conjunction with a hand-drill, probably often set in a lathe, and by grinding-wheels. Emery has been
mined for abrasive powder on Naxos since antiquity,
and was known in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Some early types of
seal were cut by hand, rather than a drill, which does not allow
fine detail. There is no evidence that magnifying lenses were used
by cutters in antiquity. The Chinese sometimes tipped their
straight drills with less-valued diamonds.[24]

A medieval guide to gem-carving techniques survives from Theophilus Presbyter. Byzantine
cutters used a flat-edged wheel on a drill for intaglio work, while
Carolingian ones used round-tipped drills; it is unclear where they
learnt this technique from. Mughal carvers also used drills.[25] Inlay
sections could be sawed by bow
saws. In intaglio gems at least, the recessed cut surface is
usually very well preserved, and microscopic examination is
revealing of the technique used.[26] The
colour of several gemstones can be enhanced by a number of
artificial methods, using heat, sugar and dyes. Many of these can
be shown to have been used since antiquity - since the 7th
millennium BC in the case of heating.[27]

Imitations

As a highly prestigious artform using expensive materials, many
different techniques for imitating hardsone carvings have been
developed, some of which have themselves created significant
artistic traditions. Celadon ware, with a jade coloured glaze,
was important in China and Korea, and in early periods used for
shapes typical of jade objects. Roman cameo glass was invented to imitate cameo
gems, with the advantage that consistent layers were possible even
in objects in the round. In the Italian Renaissance agate glass was
perfected to imitate agate vessels with multicoloured
figuration.[28]Ceramics have often
been decorated to imitate gemstones, and wood, plaster and other
materials painted to imitate stones. Scagliola developed in Italy to imitate
pietra dura inlays on plaster; less elaborate forms are called marbleizing. Medieval
illuminated manuscripts often
imitated both inlaid stone and engraved gems, and after printing
took over paper
marbling continued as a manual craft for decorating end-papers and covers.

^
The mounts of the Cup of the Ptolemies were lost in the French
Revolution; other hardstone treasures from St Denis are in the Louvre. For a full catalogue
description of the Washington cup, see Luchs, 4-12